At the Marineford Military Academy, on the training grounds, an palpable weariness still hung in the air. Over two hundred Marine soldiers were panting heavily, some swaying precariously on their feet, some slumped on the ground, and a few had even collapsed, being transported on stretchers by the medical team for emergency treatment.
Out of the total three hundred Military School Students, only Tokikake and Gion had managed to complete the task five minutes early. The rest, including Sephiroth, were subjected to an additional one hundred laps of running. More than ninety individuals were still struggling to complete their remaining laps.
By the time Sephiroth reached his one hundred and eighty-sixth lap, an hour had passed. Though he inwardly cursed Instructor Zephyr, he knew he had no choice but to spend another half hour completing a total of three hundred laps. If it weren't for the abnormal regenerative power of his Vampire Fruit keeping him in peak condition, he wasn't sure how he could have maintained such a high running speed for over an hour.
Major Shuzo, Zephyr's aide, stood in the middle of the training ground and shouted loudly, "Everyone, gather!"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Despite being as exhausted as beached seals, these Military School Students forced themselves to their feet and quickly lined up neatly, their breaths coming in ragged gasps.
"You all worked hard this morning. Now..."
Shuzo's words abruptly cut off, making the hearts of the Military School Students present inexplicably sink, worried he would give them another new problem.
"Those who have finished the task, come with me to the dining hall! After eating, return to the training ground to gather. And, those who haven't finished the task, keep running! No lunch for you!"
"Phew!"
Hearing that, everyone instantly let out a sigh of relief and inwardly cursed Shuzo for abruptly stopping and scaring them. However, the remaining ninety-plus individuals could only return to the track with glum faces and continue running to complete their remaining laps.
Under Shuzo's leadership, everyone walked towards the Marine Academy's large dining hall with synchronized steps.
Currently, in the spacious dining hall, long tables were already laden with delicious dishes: roasted meat, grilled chicken wings, steak, seafood fried rice, vegetable salads, cream soup, and fruit. The variety wasn't extensive, but the quantity was incredibly generous, as if they could eat to their heart's content.
"Eat your fill!... There's plenty!" Shuzo exclaimed, waving his hand. He himself was the first to rush to a long table, grabbing four plates of grilled chicken wings in a row. He found a spot in the dining hall and began to devour the food ravenously, oblivious to his surroundings.
At this moment, the new military school students had just finished intense training and expended a lot of energy. They were already famished, so they naturally paid no mind to dining etiquette. They rushed to the long tables, took the food they liked, found seats in the dining hall, and began to eat ravenously.
There was a man who even stood right in front of a long table filled with food and began pouring it into his mouth, that's right, that person was Tokikake! His white Marine uniform was quickly stained with large greasy smudges as he ate frantically, making his already unappealing appearance even worse.
Sephiroth carried a plate of food, casually found a table in the dining hall, and sat down. He picked up his chopsticks and ate the food on his plate occasionally, savoring each bite.
"You're eating very little, aren't you hungry?"
A fragrant breeze wafted by. Gion, who was two meters forty centimeters tall with a pair of long, beautiful legs, sat across from Sephiroth and seemed puzzled by the relatively small amount of food on his plate.
"..."
Sephiroth was silent as he looked at the mountain-high pile of food on Gion's plate. He didn't know how to explain the sense of incongruity he felt. This beautiful, well-built, long-legged older sister figure turned out to be a massive eater...
Seeing the young man remain silent, Gion blinked her large, bright eyes and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I just don't have much of an appetite!" Sephiroth scratched his head and casually brushed it off with a sentence.
Regarding the matter of appetite, Sephiroth had actually also discovered that he didn't seem to be a big eater. In the world of One Piece, all strong individuals had one thing in common, a huge appetite! The energy needed by their bodies could basically only be obtained from food. The more they ate, the more energy their bodies stored. Therefore, the more one ate, the stronger their physical strength, stamina, and vigor.
Even if Sephiroth ate his fill, he could only eat as much as two or three people. Besides, he didn't even need to eat, he could maintain normal bodily functions simply by drinking blood. He also roughly estimated his daily energy consumption and intake and found that the two were completely asymmetrical, with consumption far exceeding intake. This didn't seem to follow the law of conservation of energy at all.
It wasn't until one time, when he was busy cultivating and had no time to cook, and had to satisfy his hunger by drinking animal blood, that he finally understood this issue. His body didn't follow the law of conservation of energy, instead, the Vampire Fruit had given him a certain passive instinct that allowed him to extract specific substances from blood for energy synthesis, producing more energy to sustain bodily consumption. It was somewhat similar to plant photosynthesis, and its effect was similar to Aramaki's Forest-Forest Fruit. His body naturally possessed an active function of producing blood. Under the influence of that passive instinct, his body was actually constantly absorbing synthetic energy. Therefore, as long as his body could still produce blood and generate that special substance, he would not feel hungry.
While eating quickly and elegantly with her knife and fork, Gion casually asked, "Student, my name is Gion. What should I call you? Which branch are you from?" The long-legged older sister figure was full of curiosity towards the silver-haired, youthful-looking young man before her. Judging by his appearance, he might not even be an adult, yet the strength he displayed in the long-distance run was only slightly inferior to hers.
"G3 Branch."
"Oh, that's Vice Admiral Garp's G3 Branch! It's the most famous among all the branches, and the overall quality of its soldiers is slightly higher than other branches. However, I often hear Sister Tsuru say that Vice Admiral Garp is sometimes a very unreliable person! I wonder if that's true..."
"Well, that old Garp is indeed sometimes unreliable, but when it comes to the crucial moment, he's still very trustworthy..." Sephiroth initially nodded unconsciously in agreement, but then he seemed to remember something and turned to look at the long-legged older sister figure with a strange expression.
"But, the Tsuru you mentioned, Sister?"
"Chief of Staff of Marine Headquarters, Vice Admiral Tsuru," Gion replied proudly.
"Gion, if I may ask, how old are you this year?" Sephiroth asked, somehow feeling the question was important.
Swish!
A flash of white blade light!
Gion held her dining knife in her right hand and swung her beautiful knife through the air. The green apple on Sephiroth's plate instantly split in two, breaking into two halves.
"Little brother Sephiroth, casually asking a girl's age isn't a good habit!" As she spoke, the long-legged older sister figure's expression was half-smiling, and a dangerous glint shone in her eyes, making Sephiroth shiver slightly.
Seeing this, Sephiroth's eyes twitched slightly. He couldn't understand why this woman reacted that way. Could this be the instinctive stress reaction of an old single woman...? he thought, a little amused but also wary.